Tales of Glory and Valour: the Seafarers Main RP Topic

Community Role Playing
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“No, it’s, I…”

How do I tell him without unveiling the evils of the world?

“…Not born.” Dolphus tried to clench his fingers, but his hand was still very busy holding the notebook and quill, which he didn’t want to accidentally harm. “My arm was, uhm… Replaced, with this wing, but I didn’t- I didn’t want to have it; someone made that choice for me.”

“Since then I’ve… I haven’t…” Dolphus’ hand began digging through his hair again, as memories of his mangled, bloodied limb and flashes of nightmarish recollections tore through his mind, but it forcefully composed itself. “I’ve thought about how it used to feel, and… It’s been so hard hiding it from others, because of the abnorm-”

It’s okay now.

“-n-norm-m-mal-it…t-t… t…”

The stinging, bleeding stump suddenly disappeared. Dolphus could see himself on his side, staring at the space where his father had once occupied, pain from… The loss, nothing more. His arm was gone, yes, and so was his father, but now all that remained was the tragedy of it. The mangled blend of tissues simply didn’t factor in; it must have existed, and yet he could not conceive it in his mind. All those phantom pains from a limb he once possessed were gone in an instant, clear clarity filling the void of what had once been torment unending.

And with that clear clarity came a rushing sense of wonder unlike anything he had ever experienced before. Every feather on his arm - not his alien arm now, his wing - HIS wing - rustled with a newfound level of feeling. No longer were they a thousand fiery needles reminding him every moment of what he had lost with the constant artificial sensation of nerves that simply did not compute, but were now his feathers in his skin, in HIS wing - as if the nerves and tissue had all regrown in an instant, still the same bird tissue as before, but now more than ever before, really him.

Did that make him any more comfortable about it? Or lessen his fear of it being discovered? Not really. But it did leave him babbling out quiet noises vaguely sounding like syllables as he stared at his new wing, which somehow barged into the tiny room and seamlessly took the place of his old one, no longer a repulsive, insidious thing, but a real, honest part of who he was.

This was Dolphus now.

As Devan’s hand suddenly retracted, the moment - which felt about fifty times longer than it actually was - melted back fairly quickly, the genuine awe plastered over Dolphus’ face as clear as the sun softly reverting to his state of actual awareness of what was going on around him.

“The… Wing… Uhhhyeah, uhm.” He adjusted his collar, trying to both ride the incredible high of his recovery while also appearing completely calm and collected, as if that would make a difference to Devan’s opinion. His mouth tried to open again, but he was at a complete loss of words to fill the void.

It’s okay now.

It… It’s Me now.

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Devan looked even more confused. The reaction Dolphus had he’d chalked up to being glad at the healing. No, it was the words that confused him. The gulf in likeness between winged beings he’d met was growing all the while. That meant there was more he didn’t know in the world.

“Not born with? Odd, I guess you’re different from Winged friends. They tell me they’re born with wings, Surehart says they’re like dragons in that.” Devan shook off his confusion, now was not the time to be burdening friends. “Devan is glad to have helped Dolphus.” He said with a smile. “Hopefully it can make a part of your story happier.”

Right now he had half a mind to write to metal friend, he desperately wanted to ask more questions about the Sunblessed. That would have to wait however, he tried not to write when he had company. It was quite rude.

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Mako stepped into the clearing, clearly puzzled. That certainly doesn’t make sense. How could such a tiny ship hold so many people? Whatever the case, he was about to find out. He continued onwards, seeing if there were any paths filled with prints.
@Winterstorm345

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“Y… yeah.” Dolphus answered, unintentionally sounding slightly crestfallen, as the tail end of the exhilarating sensation he had been chasing finally slipped away, leaving behind it life as it had always been - somewhat boring and filled with all sorts of other traumas and woes.

And then in its place came the cold, rational analysis of what had occurred, tactlessly hanging him by the heels over the horrifying implications of what Devan had done, maybe unintentionally. His body language seemed to back that up, but his body was also completely unreliable as a subject by nature, so he decided to drop that line of investigation.

No, instead he quickly rushed through the train of thought following the revelation that the dubious little creature getting up to mischief with his memories and emotions had the power to rewrite not only his anatomy, but also his experiences as a whole, and that concept was beyond terrifying. That this had just happened completely against his will, with no control over it at all, was frightening enough on its own, but the added implication that by Devan’s power nothing remained sacred or safe was a threat to Dolphus’ entire world and everything he knew.

But…

It’s me now.

Dolphus felt his heart beat resolutely into his new wing. This was a complex paradox; a violent invasion of everything he held close with the power to make every pain he had ever felt go away forever. He would need to take some time to dwell on this.

…Sureheart? Oh, the dragon outside.

I think.

“I hope so too.”

“Uh,” He reeled the wing back in, composing himself as best he could with a superficial straightening of his collar. “I’m sure you will be able to write me with any further questions you have. A-And of course I’ll write to you, as often as I can, of course.”

“I’ll return,” He said as his hand touched the door, “as soon as I am able to. I don’t know when that will be, but it was a pleasure meeting you, Devan, and I hope we can be very good friends.” It was superficial, and it was stuffy, even if Dolphus did mean everything he said. But as he turned to leave, the question digging in the back of his mind reared itself upwards and bellowed all over the place, demanding to be heard.

…I must. Even if he doesn’t fully understand, I- I have to. He’s done so much for me just now.

“…And… Devan?” He turned back, pausing his opening of the door to look back at the strange, undefinable creature, elevated suddenly from being an imp scrambling across furniture to an oracle of innocence looking out across the universe in all directions, comprehending nothing but understanding more than anyone else ever could.

“…Thank you.” He tried to smile, but his mouth refused to move. The rest of his face, however, practically glowed. He was not fully comfortable with what had just happened, but as of right now, one of the many deep and jagged valleys carved into his psyche was smooth, and fertile, unfettered by the weight that had carved it at the first, shining out amidst all the others.

Opening the door, he felt like he was walking through a portal, out of one bizarre world and into the more familiar, although equally as bizarre as the one he had just left.

It’s me now.

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OOC: a completely meaningless post in hopes to stir up some activity in the RP

In the meantime Ari couldn’t be bothered by any soldier platoons led by strange individuals with hollow lifeless eyes, enormous stone dragons, or bizarre shapeshifting orchard owners. She was peacefully sleeping next to a tree with her hands behind her head and not a single concern on her mind, despite being pretty much stranded on a completely unfamiliar island who knows where, without any clear way of escaping, with people she didn’t know whatsoever and had no real reason to trust, including a kid that had all the reasons in the world to kill her right then and there and had the means to do so. That’s just the kind of person she was, even in the most dire circumstances she managed to stay way too laid back for her own good. But her own good did not matter to her at that moment, for she was having a dream. And why be concerned about your own life when you could just leave all those heavy thoughts behind and have a dream? It wasn’t often that she got those…

A young Ari opened the door.

A light morning breeze was gently playing with her hair as the warm morning sun shone directly into her eyes, making it hard to see. It took her a moment to adjust to the sudden brightness, before she was able to make out her surroundings. She was on the front deck of a clearly freshly built ship. Looking overboard, she saw that the vessel was resting in the docks. This place was so familiar to her, having been there thousands of times, she could almost call it home.

Looking around, she noticed just how busy the deck was. People were rushing past her, back and forth, carrying all sorts of crates, bags and barrels, sailors were tying the knots, adjusting the sails… doing all the tasks to prepare the ship for sailing. A common feeling of excitement could be sensed in the air. The ship was clearly about to part on its first ever journey. And it wasn’t just some vessel. Its construction immediately gave away the fact that it was unmistakably built by a Wohlford. Ari has studied her family’s work too many times both in person and looking through the blueprints of vessels from the times of old, that were kept in the company’s main warehouse, so she could easily recognise if something was constructed by them. This ship in particular was masterfully crafted, a true work of art. Perhaps the best she has ever seen.

Suddenly she noticed someone she knew very well in the in the sea of unfamiliar faces around her. The person was carefully examining various parts of the ship, checking if anything broke or came undone. It was a very tall muscular man with broad shoulders, completely and utterly towering over everyone around him. His kind, lively eyes were surrounded by otherwise sharp and rough features, and his slightly graying slicked back shoulder length hair was still unmistakably red. It was Ari’s father, exactly as she remembered him. It made sense why she would find him here. He always couldn’t stand the business side of things when it came to running the company. The endless paperwork and meetings bored him and, being an honest man, he despised the greedy scheming nature of the countless businessmen they were partnered with. He much preferred to be outside, talking to customers face to face and working alongside the shipwrights employed by the company. That way he also could spend more time with his kids. He took great pride and joy in his craft, and was always doing his absolute best to pass them over to Ari, who has always been very interested in it.

The man raised his head and a warm smile appeared on his face as soon as he saw her. You would think that it’d seem out of place on his rough face that looked like it was carved out of stone with a chisel that was way too big for the task, however the smile complemented his face perfectly. He had the face of a person who smiled a lot.

Ari smiled back and was ready to excitedly run towards him, when a hand, gently placed on her shoulder, stopped her. “Your dad is working right now, my dear, you can talk to him later, when he’s done.”

She immediately recognised the voice and turned around to face its owner. As she thought, it was her mother.

“But I can help him!”
“Sure you can. But this trip is very important, which is why he took it upon himself to make sure that everything is perfect.”

Her mother was as calm and collected as always. Her hair with the colour of coal was styled in a tight bun and her dark eyes were sharp and showed confidence. Ari was always told that she got her eyes from her mother. Her mother was the one truly in charge of the company, taking care of documents, arranging all the deals, and generally doing all of the work that her husband hated so much. According to him, It was only thanks to her that Wohlford & Co. has been able to stand up to this point. She always seemed to be able to make the best decisions that led to the best possible outcome, so Ari learned to trust her mother’s judgment early in her life. Reluctantly she agreed to wait a bit longer until she was able to see her dad.

“Where is our ship going?” Ari asked curiously.
“Don’t you remember? That’s where you’ve always wanted to go. We’re leaving the Summer Islands.”

Ari remembered. It was her dream to see the world outside of the Armada, to visit the fantastical, strange places from the stories that sailors told her. She couldn’t believe that it was finally happening. That her dream was about to come true and her face lit up with excitement.

Another figure in the crowd caught Ari’s attention. It was a boy with short spiky hair, just a few years younger than her and much shorter and thinner, standing on the nose of the ship and facing the sunrise. She couldn’t see his face, but immediately recognised him as well. It was the person who she spent half her time fighting with and who annoyed her more than anything in the world. It was her younger brother. He was always impressively smart and rational for his age, having inherited many of their mother’s traits. Some day he would become a great businessman. He rarely laughed or smiled, and acted as serious as a kid of his age could act, which never failed to make Ari mad. But right now, she was extremely happy to see him.

Ari couldn’t remember the last time she felt so good. She was about to go on her first ever journey and was surrounded by family, everyone she had. And what could be better than that?

She heard someone scream out, ordering to raise the sail, looked on, excited for what future was going to bring her and closed her eyes, feeling the pleasant breeze on her face and basking in the warmth of the sun.

When she opened her eyes it was dark and incredibly cold and the wind was so strong that it almost knocked Ari off her feet. The ship was violently rocking back and forward, and horrified screams of sailors could be heard in the distance. They were caught in the middle of the most horrific storm Ari has ever witnessed. She frantically looked around, desperately trying to catch sight of her parents, but they were nowhere to be found. However, she wasn’t the only person on the front deck. There was one person left apart from her. It was her brother. He was standing in the same spot as the last time she saw him, looking out into the storm. He couldn’t stand there, he was about to fall overboard!

Ari yelled out as loudly as she could, trying to warn him. The figure heard her and turned around.

It was not her brother.

The boy standing in front of her was only slightly reminiscent of her brother. He had black curly hair and dark eyes, a cape was draped over his left shoulder, completely obscuring his arm. The strong wind and rain seemed to completely avoid him. He stood completely still, unaffected by them and stared at her with a completely emotionless expression, devoid of any life.

Ari staggered back, horrified by the sight, when someone placed a hand over her shoulder. “Dad!” she screamed out. The voice that spoke to her did not belong to her father. In fact, it was the most excruciating voice she ever heard, completely devoid of any warmth or kindness. The one who the voice belonged to could hardly be called human.

“One day I’m going to have a son. He’ll live in the most extravagant room in my house, eat the finest delicacies, learn the greatest skills, and inherit a position of wealth and power unlike anything your near-sighted father could ever dream of. And when he does, and when you see him walking on the highest pillars in the Summer Armada, remember this day and what you earned.”

Ari dropped to her knees completely exhausted and powerless and watched the biggest wave in the world rise in front of her and completely consume her ship.

She was left alone in complete darkness.

Ari would rather be concerned for her life and have all sorts of heavy thoughts than have this dream, but there seemed to be nothing that could wake her up…

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Most of the prints went straight back the way Mako had come, before they simply vanished. They moved in perfect column, making judging numbers impossible.

Across the clearing however, there was a loose collection of steps, 2 sets in close order, with 2 further sets flanking.

“Anytime Dolphus.” He spoke just before the door slammed shut. Despite the shortness of the sentence, it somehow conveyed a slight change in the way he spoke, it seemed slightly more mature. As if he’d aged in the short interaction.

After Dolphus had exited the cabin Devan paced slightly. He worried about the peculiar manner in which Dolphus had acted. A thought occured to him, he had done something he hadn’t meant to. Healed something that perhaps ought not to have been healed.

“Reckless.” He cursed himself, his mind raced, how could he be so careless? The last time something like this had happened, no, that didn’t bear thinking about. The screams briefly echoed in his head.

“Please.” He whispered to himself, “don’t let me be wrong about him.”

Sureheart was stretched out in the sun when Dolphus sighted her. “How was your visit?”

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Dolphus exited the abode of Devan with utter joy radiating out from every pore in his skin, the bright sun hardly glowing in comparison. Inside was a tempest of conflict, sure, but for a brief moment the pure, unbridled potential of a Gorov not consumed by avarice dimmed the heavenly bodies by its own power.

And then the giant dragon sprawled out on the grass brought the entire thing tumbling down in a massive heap, ripping away the golden shine of happiness and hope and replacing it with the ugly memory of a soldier tied to a tree and a cadaver with a spike through the roof of his mouth. Needless to say, Dolphus’ first reaction to the question was to be reminded how much his knees hurt by once again trying to jump without leaving the ground, and the second was to slip the notebook and quill in between the folds of his wing, in the hopes that it wouldn’t be seen.

I mean… I HOPE it wasn’t seen… But why would that matter? Maybe it would be better to show her, since she likely knows that they exist? She’s staring at you c’mon focus

“U-Uh,” He stammered out, trying desperately to compose himself, as the realization that the rest of the world still unfortunately existed came crashing down all around him. “Yes, I-I mean good, it was good.”

“He…” Dolphus nibbled at his tongue. The beginning of that sentence had just blurted out from between his lips with no thought as to whether or not it should actually be said, but with it having been started, he now had no choice but to complete it. “Uh… Talked about the King… Of the Armada. The one I’ve been sent to retrieve.”

Wait. Did I tell her that already or no? Aw, why do I keep doing this to myself??

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Someone captured? Taken? But who? That boat was large for only a few passengers, not this many… Mako thought, measuring his steps. This is making less and less sense…
He treaded lightly through the soft dirt, the silent tapping drowned out by the forest, and the wind.

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“Ah, and was it a good conversation?” The Dragon said softly. Her eyes quickly flicked about, catching all his movements, but leaving them unremarked. An odd boy indeed, but she supposed it had been a long time since she had any interaction with those from Urban areas.

Who knew what manner of customs developed in those horrible cramped environments. The Dragon had been secretly glad when the inhabitants of this island had revealed their nefarious designs with Devan’s abilities. She had long feared the encroachment of their civilization.

There was a god she knew, who’s domain had been caught in an inverse relationship with a city once. As the city grew more dense, the domain shrank and eventually encapsulated no more than a house with a small yard. She wouldn’t allow Devan’s home to become like that cramped prison.

“Did you perhaps gain some new insight?”

The 4 sets of prints threaded off towards the center of the island, deeper into the trees.

The prints on the outside were deeper tread, suggesting heavier or armoured individuals. They were also slightly irregular, implying a faster less considered pace.

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“Y- Uh,” Dolphus muttered, his heel sliding about as he swiveled one foot on his toe in a very unbecoming manner for a Gorov. “I think so. It’s been a long time since I’ve spoken to anyone so… Knowing. So up-front.”

Dolphus opened his mouth and then immediately closed it.

“…Yes,” He eventually replied, after too many telling emotions passed over his unmasked face. “I learned a lot of unclear things about someone I know… Nothing new about the King. But he was very emphatic that I find him immediately.”

Ari entered his vision again, visibly unchanged from when he last left her. And I’m going to have to figure out what kind of excuse I can use to bring her along… Didn’t she say something about the ship being in shambles?

…Nah, I’m sure it’s just superficial damage. Gonna need a better excuse.

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The Dragon nods. “Much information we’re imparted is unclear at first. With time I’m sure you will make sense of what you learned here.” She rose to her feet, stretching a bit. “I imagine your crew will be worried about you little one, perhaps it’s time you went back to your ship.”

With a small wink she walked back towards the cabin. Nestling back into her protective position around it. “I look forward to seeing you again, go in peace little one.”

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Dolphus could feel his lips involuntarily part in response.

That’s a loaded statement if I’ve ever heard one.

Part of Dolphus was relieved to hear he was finally going to head back to the ship, but the rest of him was crestfallen at the prospect of having to leave Sureheart and go on that awful quest once more, to abandon the soothing tones of her voice in favor of restless nights and traumatic memories. Why couldn’t he just stay here forever?

Her.

He figured that, in case the Dragon could somehow also read minds, he should probably shut up about it and just chalk up his being ushered off to her being uncomfortable with having humans present on the island for any amount of time.

Dolphus swallowed, stepping away from the door as the Dragon began to approach it, circling it momentarily like a cat before resting in a position so alike her first one it seemed like she had never left. His hand quivered, as if he would reach out and touch her goodbye, but it seemed too presumptuous a motion. And perhaps unwelcome no matter what.

So with a final rather indecisive nod, he turned away from that cabin and back into the harsh world he had so eagerly abandoned moments before.

Right.

Dolphus looked at Ari’s sleep, only spending a brief second or two thinking about how she looked really stupid with her jaw open like that, before indecision and doubt crept into his consciousness. Could he actually trust her?

His hand had begun to move towards his sword, but he tightened it into a fist and dragged it away. I’ve already committed to trusting her. And I could never kill her in cold blood like that… The guard, uhh, I’ll… deal with that later this is more important right now.

“H-Hey,” Dolphus cleared his throat and softly shook her by the shoulder, deciding halfway through the motion that she was probably even more dense than her absurdly pronounced muscles and that more force would be required. “Hey, Ari, you okay? Don’t have actually died on me, c’mon.”

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Move, Move. Mako sped up, the rustling of his stitched armor aligning with his steps, the wind whisking against his bandages. @Winterstorm345

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Waking Ari up took Dolphus quite a bit of force and effort, but finally…

Ari sharply opened her eyes and swung her upper half forward, almost smashing into Dolphus. A distressed, and perhaps slightly terrified expression showed on her face. She was breathing heavily and unevenly. Dolphus has never seen her like this before, not even during their encounter with the dead-eyed individual in the forest. It seemed as if she had seen something truly terrifying.

She had a horrible dream. But what did she see?
The memories seemed to escape her mind the longer she tried to look for them.

She shut her eyes, shook her head around and scratched it violently with the knuckles of her hands, still bloodied from the encounter with the poor unlucky soldier, but nothing was coming up, as if the memories of her nightmare were hidden behind an indestructible wall. She almost never saw dreams, so why would it happen here and now?

The distressed expression on her face lasted for a good thirty seconds, before suddenly switching to her normal expression of impenetrable carelessness.

She shrugged her shoulders, all previous signs of concern having now completely vanished: “Well. If I can’t remember anything, then it’s nothing important. Dreams are just stupid meaningless things, after all.”

She finally focused her attention on the boy, eyeing him curiously. He looked as weak and pathetic as ever, but something has drastically changed in the way he was holding himself. He looked significantly more confident and less tense, and, much to Ari’s utter disbelief, the amount of tears and snot on his face decreased considerably. Did she do such a great job at calming him down before she fell asleep?
No. Her instincts told her that there was something far greater at play here. Something only the boy had the right to know about. His face showed that.

Ari yawned loudly, slowly rose from the ground, towering over Dolphus, and stretched her back in a wide, grand motion. An expression of satisfaction appeared on her face: “Ahh! It’s been a while since I slept so well!”

She finally lowered her arms, placing them on her hips and eyed her surroundings. Everything seemed to be on its place. The soldier was still as dead as ever and the other one was still tied to the same tree. Although, did that dragon statue around the house change its position slightly? Ari chalked it up to her still feeling a little sleepy and her eyes eventually returned to Dolphus. A cheeky grin appeared on her face:

“So you didn’t kill me in my sleep, huh, even though you had all the means and reasons to do so. I knew that deep down you were a good kid, despite that constant sour look on your face!” - she laughed out.

Suddenly, an audible growl could be heard from the direction of her stomach. When was the last time she ate something?

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Dolphus stumbled backwards, but suddenly found his foot placed directly behind him in such a manner to stop him from wiping out. How did… Huh? How did I do that without thinking about it??

It didn’t occur to Dolphus that natural human reflexes not directly related to swordplay were perhaps possible if he wasn’t being so insecure all the time. What was more important was how Ari had nearly crushed his nose with her forehead.

Dolphus’ nervous glare grew more and more sidelong all the while, with Ari ending her episode with a shrug not helping to disarm him whatsoever. I feel like she maybe killed her entire family by accidentally hugging them too hard. Or maybe there’s more of these genetic freaks somewhere?? Please tell me she killed them all- I mean they died of natural causes of course, haha who am I kidding she couldn’t hurt a fly.

Why doesn’t sarcasm work when I’m telling it to myself?

Ari being this uncomfortably close to Dolphus was even less helpful than her casual shrug. Unless he wanted to stare at her unnervingly overdefined abs, he was doomed to look up at her increasingly distant face and feel the entire world getting taller around him as he was reduced to the size of a mouse.

Being short is bad enough without having to feel like a toddler all the time.

“…Uh,” He began, but was mercifully cut off before he could let that lapse in cognitive capability lump any more awkwardness into the moment. She could crack my skull by flexing her bicep on it. Why do I feel my shoulders shrinking?

Dolphus’ face was blankly confused for a moment before falling into a flat reaction as he realized he was being insulted, in a roundabout complimentary fashion. He decided to reserve a comeback for a time where he had the option to run away in case she decided to chase him down and dislocate both his shoulders for it.

I had a good one, too.

He opened his mouth to change the subject, when-

An extremely loud noise appeared directly in front of his face, prompting him to fly into a panic, skidding a couple feet back and fumbling about for his sword only to realize well past the point of embarrassment that the ominous source he had been staring at for several seconds was, in fact, Ari’s ridiculously muscular stomach.

Maybe I should try sword swallowing, right here, this very minute, improperly on top of all that

He tried desperately to save the moment, no doubt making it worse by awkwardly averting his eyes, prying his fingers off the handle of his sword, and dusting off his shirt as if this had all been planned.

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Ari couldn’t help but laugh out loud at Dolphus’s reaction. It was an honest, genuine laugh, devoid of any sarcastic or malicious undertones. At this point any signs of concern or worry were completely wiped off her face, as if they were never present there to begin with. She didn’t seem to notice the awkwardness of the moment. And if she did, it didn’t seem to bother her in the slightest.

Well, apparently the kid is always like that, even after he calmed down.

Despite her careless reaction, the fact that the kid didn’t seem to be bothered by his recent injury in the slightest and moved completely freely didn’t escape her attention.

When her laughter calmed down, she suddenly remembered how hungry she was. She started looking around and eventually her eyes locked on the nearest apple tree of the orchard, which was just a couple paces away. Without saying a word, she walked up to it, stretched her arm out, plucked a big, ripe apple from a branch and viciously bit into it. Suddenly her eyes widened with excitement.

“MMM, THATS DELICIOUS!!! Far better than anything we had in town!” - Ari exclaimed as she finished up the apple and grabbed another one. The procedure was repeated a couple times, until Ari was satisfied. She turned to Dolphus with an apple in hand and, after a moment of consideration, stretched it out to him.

“Want one? I bet you haven’t eaten anything for as long as I have. You must be dying right now, and you need to eat a lot if you want to stop being so… tiny.” - all of her attempts to start a conversation with him so far have ended in failure, so she needed to change strategy if she wanted to get something out of him other than incoherent sounds and constant staggering.

“Do you think we should we take some to the ship?” - she paused for a second, “We’re… going to the ship, right?”

She knew that the talk about her sailing with his crew would need to happen eventually, the earlier the better, but asking him about it outright would likely lead to more hesitation and staggering, so she needed to start from afar.

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Despite the initial satisfaction from eating the ripe fruits. Ari soon noticed she was still hungry. In fact after a minute or so, it was almost as if she hadn’t eaten anything at all. Her stomach just as empty as it had been prior.

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While Ari’s enthusiastic laugh was reassuring, it didn’t help Dolphus’ ego much, as he placed his hand on the pommel of his blade and looked to the side shamefully, his face fighting between anger and embarrassment for which would carry the day.

At least she didn’t bring up my height at the same time. Or maybe that’s part of it.

Dolphus cringed as Ari began devouring apple after apple, his eyes traveling between the voracious Wohlford as she wohlfed pun intended them down in rapid succession and the distant cottage, wondering if somehow this would tick the Dragon off… If she was even watching.

He did take the opportunity to quietly wipe away the message he wrote in the ground, lest she suddenly discover it and ask questions. SO glad she didn’t notice that.

“I- Hey,” He scowled briefly. I literally can’t even think of it happening before she belts me over the head with it. He crossed one arm in front of his body for a moment before blinking twice and looking down at his hand.

I didn’t even think to cross my wing in front of me.

He would keep this introspection going until Ari rudely butted in once more.

“No! No, we uh,” Dolphus blurted out, trailing off as he realized he couldn’t exactly say the big Dragon you don’t know exists will blow her top and kill you. “I think we’ll need our hands free for… for…”

Dolphus quickly regretted searching his mind for something else to occupy their time. His head was slowly drawn towards Ari’s chain, wrapped tightly around the tree, an unconscious soldier securely pinned on the opposite side, unfortunate collateral in the long, evasive war against the whole world.

“…Something else.”

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Ari slightly tilted her head to the side as she curiously glanced between Dolphus’s arm and cape, waiting to see what would happen next. To her mild disappointment, he seemed to realise what he was about to do and tried to pretend that nothing happened.

Ari followed the trajectory of Dolphus’s gaze until a realisation suddenly struck her.

“Ah, right, him,” she motioned her head towards the chained up soldier. “Yeah we might want to ask him some questions when he wakes up. And he won’t be waking up for a while,” a slight proud grin appeared on her face. She roughed him up pretty good.

“Don’t worry, this guy won’t take up much space,” she said, flexing the muscles of her arm, as she turned around and began to move towards the unluckiest soldier in the Summer Armada. “We’ll have plenty of space for the-”

Ari stopped abruptly and stared directly in front of her with a blank expression for a few seconds, processing what in the world just happened. Her left eyebrow started rising, almost risking to leave her forehead for good, as her stomach growled again, louder than before.
“You know what, I don’t like those apples,” she said with deep, profound sadness showing in her voice, as she turned to face Dolphus once more. “Do you think your ship still has some food on board, by any chance? Or did it spill out through that enormous gash in the hull?”

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Dolphus turned his head back towards Ari with a concerned expression, seeing as the chained-up soldier suffering blunt physical trauma appeared to be a significant accomplishment to her. I might want to never say any comebacks actually, or she might drag me around by my dislocated arms as a trophy for her arm-socket-dislocation prowess.

Her bicep popping nearly out of her skin did not remove the visual of Dolphus’ skull cracking like an egg between it and her forearm. He tried and failed to suppress a nervous gulp, worried that the inevitable death of this unwanted baggage would be long and torturous.

If I do end up finding it necessary to silence his tongue, I had better make it merciful.

Dolphus had to catch himself to stop the utter relief from visibly seeping out of his skin.

That’s a dagger dodged right there… Maybe years from now I can tell her all about how she almost died. Ahaha, as if I would spend five minutes with ANY of these lunatics voluntarily.

No offense Alexis.

“I’m sure we have-”

Dolphus narrowed his eyes in sidelong fashion at Ari. “I’m sure our food containers have been thoroughly waterproofed, regardless of whatever damage has occurred. But if not, your interests in that regard will fit in well with the rest of the crew, I suspect.”

“Let’s take him and go before something else happens.” Dolphus flopped his arm in the direction of the soldier, feeling the mask fitting comfortably back into place. I’m sure my newfound limb won’t interfere with my mask in the future at all.

Very sure.

Yep.

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